Tumbling-barrel



(No Model.)

A. W. GETCHELL.

TUMBLING BARREL. No. 349,936. Patented Sept. 28, 1886.

WihiESS IILUGII'ZFOI';

mam. M

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUGUSTUS W. GETCHELL, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

TUMBLlNG-BARREL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 349,936, datedSeptember 28, 1886.

Application filed June 16, 1886. Serial No. 205,373.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS W. GETorr- ELL,of Cleveland, in the county of Ouyahoga and State of Ohio, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Tumbling-Barrels. of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in rotating tumbling-barrels forcleaning and polishing castings, &c.; and it consists in the peculiarformation of the cylinders or barrels and in the grouping of suchcylinders or barrels in quadrangular form for rotation on one commonshaft in such a manner that while the said group rotates upon saidcommon axis the axis of motion of the loads in said barrels changes,whereby the load in the lower barrel in each revolution is raised towardthe center of rotation, while the load in the upper or highest barrelremains in its normal position relative to said center of rotation, thusproviding for the weight of the load in said upper barrel tocounterbalance the load in the lower one, and therefore greatly aidingin overcoming the inertia of the lower barrel, result- U ing in greatlyfacilitating the operations of revolving such barrels, as hereinaftermore fully described, and pointed out in the claims. To carry out theseresults I construct and arrange the barrels as hereinafter described,and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is aperspective view of my invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section ofsame, and Fig. 3 is an end elevation of same. Fig. 4 is a diagramillustrating the principles of the operation of this new method ascompared with the old.

A B G D represent four cylinders or barrels, which I construct in thefollowing peculiar form: The sides of said cylinders are in the true areof a circle for nearly half of the circle, the other portion being inthe form of an oval, thus bringing the oval periphery within aboutone-third the distance of the full circle, as seen by dotted line ofcylinder A, Fig. 3. These cylinders are set, as will be seen in Figs. 1and 3, with their circular sides toward one another and toward thecenter of rotary motion. Said cylinders are secured together bycross-trees E, securely bolted to the heads, and said cross-trees aresupported on a shaft, F,

(No model.)

journaled in boxes G on suitable frame-work, H, and provided with adriving-pulley, I, for giving rotary motion thereto.

The operation upon the loads in said barrels from this construction andarrangement is as follows: For the purpose of tumbling the barrels mustbe but partially filled. Therefore, let a represent the height or levelof the load in each barrel. In A the load will be seen to be at a higherpoint and nearer the center of motion than such load would be if thecylinder were perfectly round. as the dotted line represents, while theload in the upper barrel, 0, is still in its normal position relative tothe axis of rotary motion. Thus the centers of the bulk of theloads in Aand Care changed in their relation to the aXis of motion to an extentsufficient to make the load in the upper barrel compensate against theinertia of the lower load, and thus overcoming that inertia enable theload in said lower barrel to be more easily raised by the aid of thegain in leverage of the upper load over the lower one. The said changein the loads is accomplished in the manner as follows: As a cylinderdescends to the lower part of the revolution the contents in tumblingabout therein and seeking the surfacelevel have to fill the narrowerpart of the chamber toward the center of motion, thus bringing a portionof its weight nearer the said center, thereby practically decreasing theshort arm of leverage, while the top portion of the load in the uppercylinder, on the other hand, being in the broadest part of saidcylinder, practically increases the long arm of the leverage. Thereforewhile the cylinders are rotating in a circular movement the contents ofthe cylinders are moving in an elliptical move ment. To illustrate thisreference is made to the diagram, Fig. 4, in which the outer ringrepresents the rotary path of the barrels and the oval ring the path ofthe contents in each revolution, from which it will be seen that by thisconstruction an equilibrium of weight of the contents of the upper andlower barrels is constantly maintained. The top of the oval ringrepresents the height or level of the contents of the upper barrel, andthe bottom of said oval ring represents the bottom or lower point of thecontents of the lower barrel. The distance of both these points from thecenter of motion is equal, so that the said two loadsbalance each otherand render the rotating of the barrels as easy as though all the barrelswere completely filled, thus making the operations of this device aseasy to perform as the rotating of an equally-balanced wheel. The sidebarrels of course balance each other at the extreme horizontal points,and as they change position the one going to the top changes its load,gradually lowering the top of said load to the topmost point of therevolution, at the same time the load of the lower barrel is in likemanner gradually being changed upward toward the center, so that thedistance of this load is thereby kept the same as its opposite load,thus maintaining I an equilibrium of all the loads as they move aroundthe center of motion. By the old method of round barrels the top of theloads passed over in the top half of the oval while the lower half ofthe revolution was made in thefull circle. The loads were thereforecarried around in an eccentric movement, with the larger part of theload always below the center of motion, necessitating the lifting of adead-weight from the lowest to a higher point of the revolution. By myconstruction and arrangement of barrels this difliculty in operatingtumbling-barrels is entirely overcome. Each of said barrels is providedwith a door or lid covering an opening in one side near to The method ofloading or charging these I barrels is as follows: First,beginning withbarrel D, for instance, the door or lid is removed, then placing in thearticles to be cleansed or tumbled, then closing the door or replacingthelid. The contents will then cause the barrel to turn down, to alowerpoint, bringing barrel 0 into position now occupied by D,whieh may bereadily charged in the samemanner that D was, and so on until all arecharged. In emptying these barrels a reverse operation is performed-thatis, barrel B, for instance, being in position shown, the door is openedor its lid removed, and its contents allowed to fall out into anysuitable receptacle, and then it will be turned upward by the weight ofopposite barrel, bringing the next barrel to same position, which may inlike/manner be emptied, and so on until all are emptied.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure byLetters Patent,

1. A tumbling-barrel of the form herein de scribed, consisting of acylinder having one vhalf its side made in a true circle and the otherhalf in the arc of an oval in cross-section, as shown and described.

2.. In tumbling-barrels, the combination of two or more barrels ofthe'fornr herein described, consisting of cylinders having one halftheir sides made in a true circle and the other. half in the are of anoval in their cross-section, arranged with their concentric sides towardeach other andmounted on one common shaft rotating in, suitablebearings, whereby the loadsin the said barrels perform an oval movementin each revolution of said barrels around said axis, as and for thepurpose specified.

AUGUSTUS W. GETOHELL. Witnesses:

E. W. LAIRD, Gno. W. TIBBITTS.

